Roz Strategies July August 2019

Roz Strategies July August 2019

The Roz Report

JULY/AUGUST 2019

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Tax Man on the Street Entertaining Marketing to Get Amazing Results

Days before the tax day deadline of April 15, I took a film crew out toVenice Beach and interviewed people on a variety of tax questions. This sounds like an odd way to spend an afternoon at the beach, but it was actually a lot of fun. I asked people questions like if they believed the claim that 13% of people cheat on their tax returns (most people thought it was much higher) or what they were going to do with their tax refund. Afterward, we had the interviews edited into a short, two-minute video and uploaded it toYouTube and shared it by posting it on Facebook and LinkedIn. We also emailed it to our members, and actually everyone on our list! I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold on this plan at first. Roslyn has been trying to talk me intomaking a video like this for the last five years. I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t think it offered any value to anyone, but Roslyn pointed out that the video would offer people a different kind of value: entertainment. She said it would be a nice break for everyone, and especially those who were working long hours preparing tax returns to take a moment to laugh. The subject line said: Tax Season Laugh: 2-Minute Video. As usual, Roslyn was absolutely right. We got over ten thousand views in just a few days with people watching and sharing the video around. It was a hit! We were happy to see howmuch people liked the video. It was a lot of fun tomake and I’m really glad to have it now. I did 15 interviews that day, though only snippets from a handful of the interviews were used in the video. We wanted to keep the first video short and offer an entertaining two-minute break. Roslyn is making arrangements for a longer version of the video to show at our upcomingTax Resolution Success Summit this August. In the meantime, we can have this video in our sizzle reel or use it before my speaking events to help the audience get to knowme before I even step on the stage. Video, especially online video, is such a great marketing medium. It’s effective! I recommend everyone have videos in their repertoire. Whether you have a video on your website talking to a potential client, a big screen TV in your waiting roomwith a video loop running with testimonials, or you send out a video to your client list, leads, and referral sources, people enjoy short videos, and they’re a great way to help people in

Michael filming “TaxMan” at Venice Beach

your area get to know, like, and trust you. It’s one more way for people to connect with you.

A lot of people don’t like to domarketing. It’s stressful, and there’s a lot of conflicting information out there about the“best” marketing strategies. Sometimes it’s good to just have fun with your marketing, andmany times fun gets a better response. Back when I ownedmy tax resolution firm, I had somuch fun withmy marketing. I used to run radio ads where I would be shouting at the top of my lungs, telling people to“Be a man!”and deal with their tax problems. People loved it, and they calledme first because I left an impression on them in a positive way. Here’s the beauty of this kind of marketing: No one else is doing it. If you have the guts to put yourself out there and entertain people and do something different, you’re sure to stand out from the rest. This is how you get people’s attention andmake sure they remember you. This is just another way to generate leads and new business.

Here’s to your success,

–Michael Rozbruch

P.S. If you haven’t seen the video yet, you can check it out at Bit.ly/ TaxManVeniceBeach. And keep your eyes open for my next“Tax Man on the Street”!

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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: BY ROSLYN ROZBRUCH (AS I SEE IT)

If I were to compare motherhood to a career, I would say being a parent has been the hardest job of my life.

You might wonder why I think that, or maybe you’re just nodding your head in agreement. In any case, the last few times I’ve been at my workout, my personal trainer, Melissa, and I have talked about this topic. She has two young sons under the age of 9, and we’ve discussed the challenges of being a mother and getting children to listen. I once told her if I were to do anything over in my life, it would be to “redo” raising my children. I shared that I didn’t consider myself to be a bad mom; it’s more like many of my ideas about child rearing were wrong. When I was pregnant over 31 years ago, I thought I could mold my child to behave a certain way, to do things like having a neat and tidy bedroom. I’m an organized person, so I thought I could train her to be that way too. What my firstborn, Danielle, taught me instead was that her will was stronger than Wonder Woman’s superpowers. I told Melissa that I now have a better idea of how I would act as a mom, and instead of trying to change Danielle, I would accept the person she was and let her do things like leave her coat on in a restaurant while she ate her dinner next to a roaring fireplace. It gives me comfort to know I’m not the only challenged parent out there. In fact, I know more parents that share my sentiments than don’t. Although, many times I’ve heard parents say, “I want to be the best parent I can be, so my children can be their best.”Well, you can be the best parent — but that doesn’t guarantee that your child will turn out to be the person you think they should be, and if your child has issues, that doesn’t mean you weren’t the best parent either. But what has this got to do with you? Not everyone reading this column is a parent. My point is relationships with family and loved ones can be complicated, and acceptance and understanding of someone else’s differences is the key to getting along with that person and actually enjoying the time you spend with them. My thought isn’t restricted to you and your child’s relationship; it also applies to you and your parent, sibling, or spouse. It’s something to think about — I love my daughter, brother, fill-in-the-blank, and accept who they are, even if I don’t agree with them. I’m the first person to admit guilt in trying to better someone in my family. But, as

Roslyn with daughters Danielle and Erica

I’ve been helping my younger daughter, Erica, plan her wedding with her fiancé, Ramsey, I’ve been more aware to let it be their wedding and make the decisions of location, photographers, etc. I’ve been working with them and giving suggestions but letting them make the final decisions. Now, that’s acceptance and tolerance! Luckily, they don’t have any extreme requests. Ramsey has parents also, and they have ideas too, so there are a lot of people’s opinions in the mix. Anyway, after a long engagement, Erica and Ramsey will be tying the knot this July, and Michael and I look forward to celebrating with them, our families, and friends. We also look forward to one day when Erica and Ramsey have children, so they can do the parenting, and Michael and I can just spoil our grandchildren.

–Roslyn Rozbruch

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Radio advertising only works if you are charging proper fees and you have a solid conversion (sales) process. You can be the best marketer on the planet, generating qualified leads, but if you don’t have a sales process to convert them into clients, you’ll feel that the radio doesn’t work, when in fact it does. Radio advertising doesn’t make sense if the product or service you are offering is inexpensive, commoditized, and doesn’t lend itself to direct response such as tax preparation or accounting services. That’s because you’ll never have a positive ROI due to the low-fee structure of tax preparation, which is around $300–$400 per client. Radio works really well for tax resolution services because the average fee per engagement is $5,000. It will cost you $700–$1,000 to acquire each new client from the radio, and you will expend another $1,500 in labor to service the case, leaving you $2,500– $2,800 to cover any additional overhead expenses plus a healthy net profit. When you know how to properly charge for each phase of a tax resolution case by employing fixed-fee value pricing, radio advertising can be one of the fastest andmost profitable ways to jump-start your tax resolution business. Here’s an example of a radiomarketing campaign I did: Length of campaign: 13 weeks Investment: $4,829 per week or $62,782 for 13 weeks Leads/calls generated: 331 Cost per lead: $189.67 ($62,782/331) New clients generated: 68 Cost to acquire each new client: $923.26 (68/$62,782) Total sales/revenue generated: $323,350 Average engagement value: $4,755 ($323,350/68) Return on investment: 5.15 to 1 ($323,350/$62,782) In order to close 68 clients and generate $323,650 in business, you need a really good phone sales system and sales script that converts leads/callers into clients. You can find these scripts and the fee schedule either in your tax resolution domination system and toolkit or on the membership website. Or, if you’re a member, email Becky, manager of client happiness, and she can send it to you! The goal of any direct response radio campaign is to get the phone to ring fromqualified callers. But before you spend a penny on radio, youmust first determine who your target audience is; second, you need to have the right direct response message that resonates with this demographic so that they call you. Falling short on this will reduce the effectiveness of the campaign and increase your costs per lead and costs to acquire a new client to the point where you’ll have negative ROI and lose money. PRACTICE CORNER FROM THE

MARKETING: Radio Advertising for Tax Resolution in 2019

After you’ve determined your target audience, made your messaging and copy“tight,”and included an irresistible offer and a call to action (telling the listener what you want them to do upon listening to your commercial) in your spot, you need to address the 12 things I’ve listed below to ensure as much success as possible. 1. Type of station – Conservative talk news radio and 24-hour news and traffic stations performbest. 2. Schedule - Monday throughThursday; morning and afternoon drive times (rush hour). 3. Frequency – 1–3 spots per day. 4. Length of campaign – Stations will want you to commit to a minimumof 13 weeks. If you don’t get calls within the first two weeks of being on the air, you need to tweak things as outlined here. It generally takes consistency and frequency for several weeks before you start seeing results. 5. The copy – Must be direct response copy that gets them to call now. 6. Demographics of Audience – Look for radio stations that have independent contractors and small-business owners as a big part of their listenership. 7. Reach of Station – Should be at least a 50,000-watt station. 8. Voiced Spots vs. Endorsed Spots vs. Your OwnVoice – Endorsed spots will outperform voiced spots, and your own voiced spots should do very well. 9. Controversial Talent/Personality – Look for stations that have controversial shows and/or personalities. The more controversial the talent, the better your response will be. 10. Call Tracking Software - Youmust have a phone tracking system so you canmeasure results fromdifferent ads and time of day so you can calculate cost per lead, cost to acquire a new client, revenue per call, ROI, etc. 11. Negotiation of Rates - Everything in radio is negotiable. Everything. 12. Bonus or No-Charge Spots – Always secure bonus spots whenever negotiating a contract. You should ask for one bonus spot for every 3–5 paid spots.

–Michael Rozbruch

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Mark Klecka, CPA, Tax Attorney Member Spotlight

Houston native Mark Klecka is a CPA and tax attorney who believes tax preparation is a dying industry. He knows the industry well, having been a CPA since 1979 and owning his own tax preparation firm since 1991. During his 40 years as a CPA, Mark has had a front-row seat to the many changes putting pressure on tax preparation businesses.“There’s pressure on pricing from the big companies and online tax preparation services,”he says.“And on the other side, there’s pressure from the IRS increasing due diligence requirements. This puts the tax preparer in the middle of a risk-reward problem, and so I see a problemwith continuing in that area. That’s why I got into tax resolution.” Mark earned his law degree in 2012 and established a second business to provide tax representation and tax resolution services. As a seasoned CPA and new lawyer specializing in tax matters, Mark entered the tax resolution field with confidence in his abilities to solve his clients’tax problems. His challenge was to find the best way to promote his IRS representation services. He discovered a multitude of proven strategies to solve his challenge when he attended Roz Strategies first Tax Resolution Success Summit held in San Antonio. When asked which of Michael Rozbruch’s strategies has been the most successful for him, Mark says,“The biggest takeaway I got from attendingmy first Success Summit was to do a newsletter.”Mark personalizes the Tax ResolutionTimes, the done-for-you newsletter that Michael provides to Insider’s Circle members. Mark mails the newsletter to his growing list of referral sources, some of whom request extra copies to distribute in their offices.“Every time I get a business card, I put themon the mailing list. I’ve had requests fromCPAs and also from real estate agents and insurance agents for additional copies of the newsletter to put in their office because people liked it and wanted to take it with them. And I’ve gotten referrals from that newsletter.” One such referral recently led to a successful penalty abatement case for Mark. The client held the power of attorney for her mother, who suffered fromAlzheimer’s and hadn’t filed a tax return for 2016. The client owed the IRS $11,000 in penalties and interest, and her CPA was advising her to pay it. But the client had read in Mark’s newsletter that mentioned penalties could be abated, so she contacted Mark and asked for his opinion.

IRS, they said,‘Yes, you qualify for reasonable cause abatement, so we’re going to abate the penalty.’That left only the interest, which was less than $2,000, so it was about a $9,000 reduction, and they were extremely pleased.” At last year’s Success Summit in Austin, Mark purchased the referral generationmachine. He’s found it to be an effective system and uses it tomarket tomany different niches: CPAs and enrolled agents, divorce attorneys, and real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Since referrals are such a big part of getting new clients, Mark has started writing a book for real estate agents to further develop that referral source. One other marketing strategy Mark has implemented that’s proven to be successful for him is his radio call-in show.“I do a live call-in show every Saturday morning at 8 o’clock. It has establishedme as the tax resolution expert, and we usually close one or two cases per week that come in via the show.” Tomake his life easier in working the cases, Mark uses CallEnQ. com, a service that limits on-hold time with the IRS.“CallEnQ definitely makes you look like a hero,”Mark says.“When a client comes in and you can contact the IRS in less than three minutes when they have to stay on the phone for an hour, it’s easy to close the resolution deal.” In his free time, Mark, who has beenmarried for 40 years, has an interesting hobby.“What I like to do outside of the office is sort of unique,”he says.“I used to do baseball officiating, umpiring for high school, but I had to put it aside because of my business growing somuch. But I do high school football officiating, and it’s only 10 weeks, so I can usually do it in the fall.”

“I told her,‘You have reasonable cause,’”Mark says.“So, I got a retainer to do the work, and in 15 minutes of working with the

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LAST CHANCE Only a Few Seats Remain! Dates: Thursday, Aug. 22, Friday, Aug. 23, Saturday, Aug. 24 Where: Dallas Marriott City Center, Dallas, TX You’re Just One Strategy Away From Retaining More Clients! But do you know which strategy will get you there? How is this event different than any other tax resolution event you’ll attend? Because, within a span of 2 1/2 days, I am going to teach you my detailed, step-by-step framework for growing your practice that includes specific actions to take to ensure you’re successful. I will also teach you the SYSTEMS to run your practice with predictable precision. You might be wondering why you should attend. Because instead of sitting in your office where you’re interrupted by phones, clients, employees, and meetings, you’ll create your marketing plan and strategy for the next 12 months while at the event, which you can start implementing Monday morning! I’ll also give you specific tips that will supercharge your tax resolution practice. “My biggest takeaway from the event is just the reiteration that the systems and processes for implementing tax resolution do work, and Roz Strategies and his entire team have an incredible program. I’m just very thankful to be a part of it. The direct mail campaigns and the newsletter marketing has been absolutely phenomenal, evidenced by the business I’ve gotten from prospects, clients, and referral sources; I would have never come up with these ideas on my own. It’s changed my business and professional life.” – Toph Sheldon, CPA

For more details: rozstrategies.com/dallas.com

I’LL BE TAKING YOU ON A JOURNEY — Would you like to join us?

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S H O U T

Mastermind Dinner Group 2

Pitbull CEO Jaime Buchwald and fiancée, Arnee.

Mastermind Dinner Group

Michael with Diamond Member Peter Marchiano

Pitbull Conference, Fort Lauderdale: Out to dinner with the group

Mastermind Dinner Group 3

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O U T S !

Kudos to Guy Finocchiaro for signing and collecting a fee on your first tax resolution case! Congratulations to Michele Newman, Ron Fassett, Richard Hall, and Brian Brady for sending out their referral letters and brochures to their existing and previous data base! Nice job, Kenneth Mullinax, for representing your friend’s son, who owed $6,800 to the IRS, and for settling it for $25! Even with a small case, it’s a big win and a good deed done! Kudos to Allan Pearlman for publishing articles on LinkedIn. Keep up the good work. Do you have a story or picture to share with us on something you’ve implemented, a client you’ve helped with a tax problem, or anything else you’d like to share? If you do, email it to us at info@RozStrategies.com and we will give a Shout Out to you!

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11271 Ventura Blvd. #612 Studio City, CA 91604 Inside This Issue pg 1 ∙ Tax Man on the Street pg 2 ∙ Food for Thought pg 3 ∙

From the Practice Corner

pg 4 ∙ Member Spotlight pg 5 ∙ Tax Resolution Success Summit pg 6 ∙ Shout Outs! pg 8 ∙ IRS Terror Tale of the Month

IRS Terror Tale of the Month Celebrity Attorney Adds Tax Evasion to His Web of Crime

Michael Avenatti has been a high- profile attorney for decades but only recently stepped into the public eye while briefly representing adult film actress Stormy Daniels’ lawsuit against President Trump. Now, Avenatti is in the spotlight again, this time facing almost 404 years in prison from various charges. Avenatti is being charged with a lot of bad behaviors and shady dealings, from extortion and bankruptcy fraud to stealing from his own clients. One of his biggest

Avenatti’s bank account since 2010, Avenatti hasn’t filed personal income tax returns for over a decade. The IRS has also been looking at Avenatti’s business accounts for a number of years. In 2016, officials began trying to collect debts from his coffee company, Tully’s Coffee. The company failed to pay at least $3.2 million in federal payroll taxes. Additionally, reports show that Avenatti’s law firm, Avenatti & Associates, recorded $38 million in

Credit:AndrewCullen/Reuters

crimes is his evading taxes for over a decade. Instead of paying Uncle Sam, IRS records reveal Avenatti used that money to help fund an extravagant lifestyle of expensive cars, jewelry, and luxury apartments. Among the people who want Avenatti to answer for his alleged crimes is the IRS. According to IRS records obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Avenatti earned $1.9 million in personal income in 2009 and $1.2 million in 2010, and he didn’t pay any taxes. Federal prosecutors claim that even though $18 million has come into

deposits but failed to file any income tax returns. In 2018, Avenatti also failed to make good on a $425,000 tax payment owed to the IRS to resolve a bankruptcy case. In April, Avenatti was indicted on 36 counts by a grand jury in Southern California. Only time will tell how the rest of Avenatti’s story plays out, but one thing’s for certain: No matter how much someone tries to evade paying their taxes, once the IRS is involved, they’ll get what they’re owed one way or another.

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